A night in a hotel
The day trip to Delft went so well, we decided to up our game; we planned an overnight trip to Utrecht. What is “Utrecht”? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht Utrecht is about 25 miles south of Amsterdam. The phrase we had heard from many folks is that: “Utrecht is Amsterdam before all the tourists”. It is small, very walkable, and the canals are different from those in Amsterdam; they are two levels. It also has a train museum which is a ‘Benjamin friendly’ attraction. It sounded like a good place to go without actually going too far.
Double-decker canal of Utrecht 
Church and sunflowers along our walk to the house 
Canal at night, in the rain
Off we went taking the national rail out of Amsterdam Central, we were in Utrecht by 9:30 am on a Saturday morning. Utrecht Centraal station is the busiest in the Netherlands, but it is a beautiful and functional new building; easy enough to navigate – if only we could go the right direction out the right door the first time we leave a train station. Nonetheless, we wound our way around to find our hotel (total 10 rooms) on the Oudegracht (old canal). Dropping off our overnight bags we were ready to explore the town.
Our first stop was at the Reitveld-Schroeder house. https://www.rietveldschroderhuis.nl/nl/rietveld-schroderhuis?set_language=en Even though this is one of the ‘top-ten’ things to do in Utrecht, it is not likely I would have found it if Aj had not said we should see it. Even today, this is a modern house with walls and windows that retract allowing great flexibility in how the house is used – it was built in the 1920’s. We learned a lot about the house and its architect, Rietveld, which came in handy on our next stop.
Outside of Schroeder house 
I am amazed at the space 
The ‘living-dining-homework room
Next stop, Utrecht Centraal Museum. https://www.centraalmuseum.nl/nl The museum has multiple furniture items designed by Rietveld. He was a furniture designer before the newly widowed Mrs. Schroeder gave him the opportunity to design her new home. From there, he went on to become one of the most famous designer/architects of the Netherlands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrit_Rietveld In addition to Rietveld, the museum also had an exhibit on sixty-five years of Miffy. https://www.miffy.com/ https://www.centraalmuseum.nl/nl/tentoonstellingen/65-jaar-nijntje This was great fun and even included the recreation of the artist’s (Dick Bruna) design studio, which I always find interesting. For the record, there was also a special exhibit on Surrealism and the Sexes, which I intellectually understand – I did not care for it. https://www.centraalmuseum.nl/nl/tentoonstellingen/de-tranen-van-eros
Miffy re-imagined for her 65th birthday 
Miffy at the bookstore 
Miffy in the shop windows
We ended our day by walking back on the Oudegracht and finding a great tapas restaurant right down the canal from the hotel.
Next morning, no hurry; I had arranged breakfast in our room. Yes, a tiny bit ‘bougie’, but also kept us out of the germ pool in the breakfast room of the hotel; win, win. We walked the canals back through town, even finding Andy a new pair of shoes – he has to have ‘work clothes’ again now that he is on the “B” rotation back into the actual Coty building. Then on to the train museum. https://www.spoorwegmuseum.nl/ What fun. Giant locomotives and a special exhibit on ‘diners’. A favorite diner car was from Belgium, the BarDisco. A party train carriage that went to the Mediterranean with disco ball, velvet seats, full bar, and flashing lights with music all the way.
They had an immersive train exhibit – took us to the 1800’s 
Disco to the Mediterranean
From there we had a rest in the park, they even had anchored lounges, until it was time to go to Dom Tower. https://www.domtoren.nl/en This is the highest (112 meters) church tower in the Netherlands. How flat is the Netherlands? We could see Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam from the top of the tower; amazing.
Another dinner at another outdoor restaurant and then it was time to head back to Amsterdam. Mission accomplished; a holiday weekend with a stay in a hotel all safely completed with distancing, hand gelling, and masks on public transportation.